Yahoo’s Dublin operations begin to supersize

Yahoo! EMEA, the Dublin company into which the internet giant is consolidating its European operations, more than doubled its revenues last year but recorded a slide of almost a quarter in its operating profits, according to accounts recently filed.

Yahoo announced in February that it would shift all of its European user services to the Dublin company from April 1st. The accounts show that the previous November, however, the company also took over responsibility for all of its European websearch revenues.

Just two months of the impact of the websearch change are captured in the accounts, which are for the year to the end of December 2013.

Web-search change

The figures show that Yahoo Emea’s revenues ballooned from €43 million to €98 million, suggesting that the websearch change alone could add more than €300 million to the Irish company’s revenues in a full year.

Operating profits for the company fell from €3.7 million to €2.9 million. The company paid corporation tax of more than €1.1 million, after paying off a deferred tax charge accrued in previous years.

The explosion in the size of the company’s Irish operations, driven by the two-month period starting in November captured in the accounts, is also laid bare in Yahoo Emea’s balance sheet.

At the end of 2012, it was owed €8.8 million by various trade debtors. On the same date in 2013, it was owed €178 million, suggesting a huge expansion in its trading activities. Its bank balance rose from just over €60,000 to €13.1 million.